Pacific Northwest ski enjoyment starts where the California Sierras become the Oregon Cascades, near 42 degrees latitude north. The same volcanic uplift that runs from the Baja to the Yukon, not far inland from the San Andreas Fault, opens its Oregon, Washington and British Columbia aprons to catch deep snowfall from frequent Pacific storms. Many peaks are well over 10,000 feet high, and most years see 300 to 800 inches of snowfall.

Clockwise from the California/Oregon border, here's a look at northwest skiing.

Oregon

Ski areas in Oregon are near-paradise for snow enthusiasts. They get deep regular snowfalls from Pacific storms that dump before crossing the Cascades.

Oregon and Washington skiing suffers a bad rap for ``Cascade Cement,'' wet glop below the freezing level. Every ski region of North America gets its share of oatmeal during marginal weather, but few share Oregon's topography of snow-covered volcanic peaks up to two miles high.

Those peaks mean great skiing on the flanks, in the bowls, and through the woods of the surrounding terrain.

Washington

Seattle's rainy winter season generally implies ample snow in the nearby Washington Cascades. Most years see phenomenal amounts of the stuff. Crystal Mountain Resort (the only spend-the-night alpine ski area in the state) got 65 inches in one week a few years back, and Mount Baker, near the Canadian border, has an average annual snowfall of 595 inches. Washington skiers figure that if there aren't at least a hundred inches base on the ground, it's still early in the winter.

East of the mountains, Washington has 200 miles of high plateau and desert reaching to the Rocky Mountain foothills of Idaho and Montana. Ski areas like Mission Ridge, in the geographical center of the state, and Mt. Spokane, near the city of Spokane, benefit from a much dryer snow than the Cascades.

British Columbia

British Columbia covers 366,000 square miles, and over 90 per cent of that range is provincial forests and parks. It is the heli-skiing and Nordic touring center of the known ski universe, and has the added bonus of 35 or so alpine ski areas. As Vancouver writer Steve Threndyle says, ``B.C. is one of the few places in the world where people can still seek out an endless amount of recreational challenge in a vast, uncompromising wilderness setting.''

The Coast Mountains give rise to Blackcomb and Whistler, which feature the largest vertical drop of any North American ski resort. Further east, the British Columbia highlands and plateaus collect moisture from Pacific storms and spill dryer snow in the Monashees, Selkirks, Kootenays and Purcells on their way towards the Rockies.

Idaho

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Idaho is famous for Sun Valley, but there are 16 other ski areas in this diversely mountainous state. With 40 percent of Idaho being National Forest, it feels like unbounded wilderness. Don't expect much in the way of consumer frills. Sun Valley and Bogus Basin in the south tend to get dry snow, but not a lot of it. Several hundred miles north, Schweitzer and Silver Mountain get more snow, but Pacific storms and low fog can create a much slushier mix.

Montana

The word crush is a meld of crowd and rush. This term has to be explained to people in Montana because they never experience it. The only crush skiers will encounter in Montana is when the Amtrak train pulls into Whitefish at 6:30 in the morning after a night of fresh powder.

Other than that, there is neither hubbub nor hassles on Montana mountains. Distances are vast in our fourth largest state— the ambiance is pristine, the powder ubiquitous and skiers from elsewhere forget what lift lines are all about. Between Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks are 14 alpine ski areas and dozens of cross-country ski trails. A big day at a Montana resort means one skier per acre of skiable terrain— a refreshing change from traffic on those same Rocky Mountains further south in Colorado.

Way back before snowboarding invented itself, Steve Giordano was a volunteer on the Mt. Baker Ski Patrol. After five years of rescues both heroic and mundane, he realized he had some interesting stories to tell. So he quit the patrol, and his job, and turned to writing and traveling.

For ten years he wrote the weekly ski column in the Bellingham, Washington Herald and freelanced to magazines and newspapers. His first book was Now Hiring! Ski Resort Jobs. His second was The Seattle Dog Lover's Companion, and third was Scenic Driving Washington. Next in line is a camping guide to Washington State and a visitors' guide to the state. Somewhere during all that time he took up snowboarding and never looked back.